Conformity Against Uniformity

Did you know that the school uniform topic is something that creates debate and discussion among most students? Well, this is just because some things about the uniform are just plain annoying. I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love having a uniform, but they should adjust a lot of things about it so that we would feel more comfortable in what we are wearing. We wear the uniform more than we wear our own clothes, and we should like what we wear.

Some people say our uniform unites us as a community. Others say it makes us look ridiculous. I don’t agree with any of them. But we all agree that the uniform rules are something that should definitely be changed. In my opinion, having a uniform is easy and simple. We don’t need to think about clothes in the mornings and we can just get dressed and get out. We don’t need to compete to see who looks the prettiest and who has the best outfit since people are so judgmental now a day. That is one of the fears most people have about changing the uniform, we would be judged. That shouldn’t be a problem. We should be able to be ourselves. Others opinions shouldn’t matter, but that would only happen in a perfect world. In some way, I guess uniform just represent equality among students.

There are a lot of things I would change about the uniform. I asked 20 "high schoolers" around school, and fourteen out of twenty say that they like having a uniform, but that they would love to make some alterations to it. That mean 70% of students are not completely satisfied with their uniform! Yet, curiously, no one said they would leave the uniform the way it is. There are a lot of problems with the uniform. Starting with the material. The material is so rough, it feels like I have a blade against me skin whenever I put my sweater on. Plus, the school doesn’t let us wear a “hooddie” under the school sweater. But why do they think we want to wear one? Bogota is a mountain, and it is cold, and we get cold. Maybe, just maybe if the uniform was warmer we wouldn’t be cold in the morning, kind of obvious… But still, year after year, the uniform stays the same. Another common complaint is the fact that we can’t wear colored scarfs. Seriously what is that all about? We don’t want to have a closet full of white scarfs just for school.

Another problem for me, and for a lot of other students too, is the PE uniform. It is so uncomfortable and the material literally gives me goose bumps by just thinking about it, not mentioning how ugly and expensive it is. We would love to be able to wear our own P.E clothes, we wouldn’t suffocate inside that tight shirt and we would be able to increase our physical capacity by feeling fresh and not like we’re inside a microwave.

Then, after class we have five minutes to change and get to class. FIVE. Why can’t they just let us stay with the uniform in the first place? Or maybe give us five more minutes. Missing some minutes kicking a ball wont really affect me, but if I miss five minutes of math, for example, I could be lost for the rest of the class. Time is preciouses in school. That sounds like a cliché, but it’s true. If they change this “5 minute rule” not only will students stop loosing time, but they will also stop getting tardies.

These are just some ideas and points I had to make. Now I feel kind of relieved actually. Some people may think our uniform is the best thing ever and that they wouldn’t want to change it. But change is good, maybe they are just so used to the uniform and they don’t realize how much happier we would be if some minor changes were made in our dress code. Because these are the clothes we wear almost all week and we don’t want to feel uncomfortable in it! At least I don’t. There are so many ways in which we could maybe come to an agreement with the school about the uniform, but I would never have the courage to ask for that. I would need support from other peers so that we could be able to achieve change. How would we do that? I actually don’t know. Would you help me think of something?

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